Gateway To Evil

by Brody Rossiter

After small town police officer Carter (Aaron Poole) discovers a badly beaten man during a sleepy night shift, he rushes him to the local hospital. Ominous clouds blanket the town’s skies, a thunderous call to arms rings out, and events spiral out of control as cloaked figures surround the soon-to-be-closed building. While the few staff inside must contend with a grotesque and powerful threat from within, Carter must find a way out before time runs out.

Overtly drawing upon Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 and The Thing (including the welcome implementation of gross-out practical effects), Directors Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski break very little new ground, yet in wearing their influences upon their blood-soaked sleeves, they deliver a visceral descent into the hospital’s demonic bowels that is sure to entertain fans of bloodier horror offerings.

A throbbing synth soundtrack and grimy visuals fuel the unsettling narrative as the picture grows increasingly chaotic. While Carpenter’s cinema methodically built to a potent crescendo, The Void wastes little time in confronting the audience with its many terrors. Despite being so front-loaded, the grim tale manages to sustain its pace, mixing action with revelation, revealing the unsettling secrets the close-knit band of hide beneath the surface.

As the narrative gradually finds its own feet, stepping away from genre classics while venturing ever closer to the eponymous void and an unashamedly monstrous finale, unexpected depths are revealed – clearly Gillespie and Kostanski have their own startling tales to tell. A raucous and gory ode to lo-fi ’80s horror, The Void channels the cinema of John Carpenter to deliver a thrilling splatterfest and a journey to another dimension that’s definitely worth taking.